This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Today, telltale turquoise branding of the Rexall pharmacy chain can be seen and paper covers the windows where the once-famous Toronto saloon stood.

Previous to this corporate facelift, “The Brunny” was many things in its 141-year history: a watering hole for the working class, the “poor man’s Granite Club,” host to unconventional events and weddings, a venue for jazz and blues acts, the site of a so-called “lesbian riot” and where University of Toronto students went on Frosh Week.

Before declining into little more than a regular noise complaint from neighbours, the space was a longstanding part of the Annex’s community charm.

But its future begs the question: Is the corporate takeover part of a trend in Toronto?

“This is a positive outcome for the community,” he said. “Yes, Rexall came along; yes, they are a cookie-cutter chain . . . but they see the historic quality of the place and (are) going to emphasize what the building was (in its redesign).”

Sinclair explained that, in its final iteration, the Brunswick House was a “big problem” for the neighbourhood in terms of public intoxication and a boisterous clientele.

“We were not unhappy to see them go.”

Sinclair doesn’t worry about the Annex maintaining its community character, either.

“If you walk along Bloor, I don’t see a lot of chain-type stuff. (All the stores) are independent,” he said. “The residents are happy.”

Edward Skira, of UrbanToronto.ca, holds a different opinion, stressing that the chain-store takeover is pervasive, and not just a Toronto problem.

“It’s happening not just on Bloor but across the city entirely and worldwide,” he said. Owners and developers prefer a “sure thing with a chain they know can pay” for a tenant, as opposed to a “mom-and-pop type place.”

The result, whether it’s big boxed coffee or food, clothing or hardware, is a “loss of charm” to the neighbourhood, he said.

“Where is the local culture? Where is the character? It’s all the same.”

Part of the problem, Skira thinks, is that consumers accept the corporate status quo — buying from the big guys instead of independents. Another is that new developments lease out units with larger floor plans, limiting what type of businesses can afford to operate.

This point is something that Ward 20 Councillor Joe Cressy says the city is tackling with its limited power over who can lease where.

“We don’t want a cookie-cutter approach to retail . . . we want dynamism,” said Cressy. “(The city doesn’t) have the capacity to say, ‘This is the type of business that can go here,’ but what we can do as part of the rezoning plans is stipulate the maximum size of retail floor space.”

Policies like this support small and independent retailers by controlling the size of commerce coming in, he explained.

“A city has to be more than a place to live and sleep, more than condos in the sky,” he said. “It’s the experience on the street, the eclectic nature of business, culture, life and arts. It’s where we live and play. We have a strong role to play to incentivize those spaces.”

But the Brunswick House “conflates the issue a little bit,” Cressy said. “We do have issues in the changing financial context of Bloor St., but not in the case of the Brunny: The owner just got tired of the operator.”

While he would have loved to see a boutique hotel with a music venue go in that space, Cressy acknowledged that the Rexall has worked with the community to retain the building’s strong heritage and character.

According to Derek Tupling, a spokesperson for Rexall, the pharmaceutical retailer has completely restored the interior and exterior of the building, working closely with the city’s heritage division.

“The brick and limestone have been restored to the best state it’s been in for decades,” said Tupling.

Rexall has also kept all the interior chandeliers, tin ceilings and worked the old signage into the store. The keg barrel bar will be found at the front checkout counter; the Ye Olde Brunswick House sign will be featured prominently, too.

From there, only time will tell how well it integrates into the neighbourhood.

For Michael McClelland of ERA Architects — responsible for the heritage conservation of the Distillery District, Evergreen Brickworks and the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto project at 158 Sterling Road — cities like Toronto should be considering the impact and value of “the third realm.”

Not home or work, “the third realm” represents the places of interest where people go to be social, where the “localness” and history of a place has its benefits.

“I don’t think the city has really caught on to the value of the public place,” McClelland said. “That space isn’t being recreated anywhere . . . those fantastic places for people to meet and greet . . . It’s the whole public theatre of a city.

“You can’t really hang out in a drug store.”

But there is hope, McClelland thinks, in the fact that “older buildings tend to go through cycles of being appreciated and not appreciated . . . it’s possible there could be a revival of some of some of its more traditional uses.”

For their part, Rexall wouldn’t say how long they have leased out the Brunswick House or how much they’d put down on the lease.

The pharmacy should have a soft opening to the public around March 1, said Tupling, before an official grand opening this spring.

Delivered dailyThe Morning Headlines Newsletter

The Toronto Star and thestar.com, each property of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, One Yonge Street, 4th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5E 1E6. You can unsubscribe at any time. Please contact us or see our privacy policy for more information.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com